Why do conservative men all too often give Democrats ammunition for their “war on women” rhetoric? Charles Krauthammer offers some sage tactical advice.
Prompted by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee’s recent and bizarre outburst on the subject women’s libidos, Charles Krauthammer says that there is a way to avoid such fiascos:
Stick to policy. And there’s a good policy question to be asked about the contraceptive mandate (even apart from its challenge to religious freedom). It’s about priorities.
By what moral logic does the state provide one woman with co-pay-free contraceptives while denying the same subvention to another woman when she urgently needs antibiotics for her sick child?
The same principle of sticking to policy and forswearing amateur psychology should apply to every so-called women’s issue.
Also dismayed by Huckabee, usually so much better, I offer similar advice at Townhall (“Rules of Engagement for the ‘War on Women’”):
Conservatives should talk about contraception only in terms of religious liberty and the very real negative consequences which will follow from the Health and Human Resources Department contraception mandate. There are plenty of arguments to make. The mandate will very likely make contraception more expensive for the uninsured, and it will restrict women’s ability to customize their health insurance, (for more see this amicus brief filed by the Independent Women’s Forum). It violates the fundamental idea that the government ought not force people to violate their religious convictions. A cogent, hard-hitting, policy-oriented attack is harder for Democrats to refute. Huckabee was right not to be timid, but he would have done better if he'd stuck with facts.
The stock-in-trade for the “war on women” crowd is phony statistics—including the much-debunked 77-cent gender wage gap President Obama cited in his State of the Union address—and so we have no shortage of ammunition. If only Republican guys can stop empowering the other side.